[cwperkins]

A look at the charts tells a different story IMO.

> Birthrates fell or held steady for women of all ages except those in their early 40s. Teenagers saw the sharpest drop, with a 5% decline in their birthrate. Since peaking in 1991, the teen birthrate has fallen 73%.

Seems to me like people are waiting longer these days. We may be in a lull at the moment, but I'd expect this to pick back up barring any adverse economic conditions.

[AndrewGaspar]

If you push out the whole distribution of child births, some of those would-be child births will not happen. Female fertility falls rapidly after 35[1]. It's not something you can simply delay across the population and expect to get the same total reproduction rate. People will have fewer kids than they otherwise would have.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_and_female_fertility#Quant...

[WhompingWindows]

Plus access to contraceptives, sexual education, and economic and social considerations -- lot of factors that could contribute to the drop in <24 year old group.

[jbeam]

>I'd expect this to pick back up barring any adverse economic conditions.

I expect that it won't pick back up because adverse economic conditions have already arrived.